


Why are you calling?

by JoCarthage



Series: Long distances and close calls (2020 phone banking accountability fic series) [10]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27218344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoCarthage/pseuds/JoCarthage
Summary: Why are our favs phone banking in 2020? Each response is a drabble (exactly 100 words) except for the last one. Pure wish fulfillment.--This is a fic series where, after each day of phone banking for the democratic ticket in the US's 2020 presidential election, I will write a fic that's 10x the number of calls I made. So if I make 14 calls, I write and post a 140 word fic. If I made 82 calls, 820 words. If you'd like to start phone banking, you can sign-up for a good, comprehensive training here: https://demvolctr.org. If you're in the US and need help 0) finding your polling place, 1) knowing what to bring, 2) filling out the ballot, 3) anything weird happens at the polls, you can get help through the voter hotline (833-336-8683 || text ACCESS to 43367) or at http://iwillvote.com.
Series: Long distances and close calls (2020 phone banking accountability fic series) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970539
Comments: 20
Kudos: 30





	Why are you calling?

**Author's Note:**

> When I'm phone banking or knocking doors, I always let myself have one rambling conversation per shift or per 100 voter contacts. Sometimes, when you call someone or knock on their door, they'll ask you why you're doing it. Why get hung-up on hundreds of times, why get cussed out by strangers, why help strangers figure out where to vote or plan how to drive their Mom to the polls. This is how I think each of the characters in Roswell would respond.  
> \--  
> I made 66 calls today into Pennsylvania today, for a total of 1001 calls. My goal was 1000 and I did it! Yay! That means this is the end of this series -- I've really, really appreciated all of you reading along, enjoying these ficlets and sharing your own views on the election in my country. If I end up making more calls, I'll keep adding to it; I offered to start doing tech support for my local GOTV hub, helping other folks figure out how phone banking works, so if I find some metric associated with that I can link to fanfic, I will :D.
> 
> Seriously, you have all been such a joy, and knowing I could look forward to your comments really helped me dial the phone every day. Thank you.
> 
> As always, for the other people phone banking -- if you are open to sharing your number of calls/texts/postcards (either total, per week, per day) and if my style of writing is your jam, let me know what kind of fic you'd like in the comments or on tumblr (http://jocarthage.tumblr.com) and I'll try to write you a one-shot!

**Maria** : I grew-up thinking I was the only black person on earth. And like you said, Shirley, the President's behavior horrifies me, his hate terrifies me. So yeah, I've got my business to run, my Mom to take care of, my friends to watch out for and my life to live. But part of my long-term self-care is doing what I can to protect my friends and family. It's been hard to take care of myself since 2016. But with Kamala Harris in the White House, I'd know no other black girls will feel as alone as I did growing up.

\--

 **Isobel** : Thanks for asking, David. Well, the first reason I'm calling is to help you vote. I can't cast a vote in Pennsylvania, and while my vote in my town can help swing my city council and mayor's race, I'm one of hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans ensuring our delegation to the Electoral College votes for Biden. Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes in 2016, out of more than 6,000,000 votes cast. That's a difference of 0.72%. If I call 500 people, I could be calling someone who will swing it. That could be you, David.

\--

 **Charlie** : Well, Chad, liked we talked about a little already, I'm trans. And obviously, even though the Democratic Party sucks in a hundred, a thousand ways, they're the only ones even vaguely trying to make the world safer for women like me. They're the only ones who bother confirming pronouns, have ideas for how to improve access to health care, protecting folks from getting fired, undoing the ban on serving in the military. They're never doing enough, and sure, I'd love to be voting for Bernie, but he's not on the ballot. I figure politics is about better, not best, right?

\--

 **Kyle** : That's a good question, Janet. As a doctor in a town near the border, I've seen a lot of people stop coming in for care, because they're terrified ICE is going to take them. And -- yeah, that's not an unreasonable fear. My friend's Dad, he got taken to detainment right from the hospital a few months ago and -- that shouldn't happen. That shouldn't happen here. And tearing down that useless border wall, creating a 5 year path to citizenship, returning to how asylum should work? Biden's either promised to do it or I think we can push him to it.

\--

 **Forrest** : When I'm not calling strangers on a Friday, I'm a historian. And I study Nazis. I study how they wormed themselves into American society during our grandparents' generation. I've studied them at a macro level -- battlefields and policies and stuff -- but most of my work is smaller, more personal. How did _this Nazi_ convince _this person_ to give them _that_ information. And what it's taught me is how important one person can be. One person who says: _No_. This far and no further. One person who makes a call. One person who votes. I guess I just believe in people.

\--

 **Michael** : So, you're the 792nd person I've called. Mostly hang-ups, a few people wanted to cuss out a stranger, but I've given a lot of people the voter hotline number. And that's what I like: the chance to give people information who need it, a bit of security, the sense someone's got their backs. 

\--

 **Liz** : So, Martha, I think I'm calling for the same reason you volunteered to start phone banking. Because this election is the big one. The one we save up energy and time and hope for. It's the one that will change things, one way or another. And it's not the end: there is so much work to do, with the pandemic, the wars, our alliances, the injustices against people of color and women and trans folks and LGBTQ people more broadly. But it's work we can do together. So, thank you for asking and thank you for signing-up to phone bank.

**Author's Note:**

> Top quote from today's phone banking:  
> \- Nola's Dad: "Our whole household voted Democrat."  
> \--  
> Here's Alex's reasons for calling (I ran out of space):
> 
> Alex: So, Delphina, you told me about growing up in the south. Well, I grew-up in New Mexico. The people I call family, they're African American and they're Mexican-American and they're Native and they're white, they're undocumented and they're business owners and they're doctors, they have criminal histories and they're survivors. Then I served for 10 years and I saw the same thing: people from all over the country, working together in the same units, sometimes doing good, sometimes bad. So I'm calling because I don't recognize the America Trump talks about and I want a better future for us all.
> 
> \--
> 
> You can sign-up to text or call here: https://demvolctr.org


End file.
